Bertrand Lavier (born 1949[1] in Châtillon-sur-Seine, France) is a French conceptual artist, painter and sculptor, belonging to the post-readymade era, inspired by the Duchampian legacy[2][3] and the Nouveau réalisme, the artistic movement created by the art critic Pierre Restany in 1960.
He has become known for transforming everyday objects into artwork by playing with their significance, their names and underlying meaning, and reinterpreting art language with his own humor and a unique personal style that uses three essential dimensions in his artwork: a paint touch over objects, a humorous painting language, and a novel approach to sculpture.
For example, in Lavier’s work “Rouge-Bordeaux par Novemail et Ripolin (1990),” the side-by-side monochrome panels of “Burgundy” red paint are literally out of the can with identical names, “Rouge-Bordeaux” from two paint makers, Novemail and Ripolin, yet the two burgundy reds are quite different in tones and that provokes the viewers to reflect on who defines the color ‘Bordeaux’ in life and in art.
This artwork is present in the catalog of the Bertrand Lavier retrospective exhibition at the Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France in 1991.
[17] Bertrand Lavier has exhibited his work at the Serpentine Gallery in London,[18] the Villa Sauber[19] and École Supérieure d’Arts Plastiques in Monaco, the Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, at the Middelheim Museum in Antwerp,[20] Belgium, the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo in the Netherlands, the Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin, the Haus der Kunst in Munich,[21] and the Frankfurter Kunstverein in Frankfurt am Main, in Germany, the MAMCO in Geneva, the Kunsthalle in Berne, Switzerland, the Macro Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma and the Villa Medici in Rome, Castello di Rivoli (Castle of Rivoli), Museo d’Arte Contemporanea[22] in Turin, and the Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, in Prato, Italy, the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (Mumok) and Palais Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna, Austria, the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg in Russia,[23] the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and MoMA PS1 in New York, the Swiss Institute Contemporary Art New York,[24] the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), and the BAMPFA in Berkeley, California, the Atelier Hermès Dosan Park in Seoul, South Korea,[25] the Hong Kong Museum of Art, the Centre Georges Pompidou, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, the Grand Palais, the Louvre Museum, the Musée d’Orsay, the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac, the Palais de Tokyo, the Musée de la Monnaie de Paris, and the Bourse de Commerce–Pinault Collection in Paris, France, the Punta della Dogana in Venice, Italy, the Louis Vuitton Foundation in Paris and the Espace Louis Vuitton in Tokyo, Japan, the Palace of Versailles,[26] the Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles, and Le Consortium museum in Dijon, France.